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A brief silence fell over the office.
"Yes."
Snape's answer was brief and direct.
"So what's missing?" Morris pressed eagerly.
Sure enough, his Potions professor shared the same idea.
They may have already conducted relevant research and know about the missing final material.
Snape did not answer immediately.
He got up from his desk and walked slowly toward the row of tall cabinets against the wall.
When he turned around again, he had a narrow-necked glass bottle containing grayish-white powder in his hand.
He didn't hand the bottle to Maurice; he simply placed it on the table between them.
Morris's gaze was fixed on the grayish-white powder. "Is this the missing material? What is it?"
"Ashes".
Snape answered calmly, without saying anything more.
Morris remained silent for a short while.
"Human?" he asked.
"Can't accept it?" Snape gave a mocking sneer and explained, "The last ingredient in the Living Hell Potion—the ashes of those who died with the hope of living."
"Oh, it's not that I can't accept it," Maurice said with unexpected calm. "I just didn't expect it. So… what should I do? Add it when I'm brewing the Elixir of Life and Death?"
To be honest, he was genuinely shocked by this final piece of information.
But for wizards, using ashes as an ingredient in potions is probably normal... right?
Yes, that's normal (trying to convince myself).
"Just add it to the finished product of the Water of Life and Death." Snape's voice remained largely flat.
"But after that, the Water of Life and Death was no longer a magic potion that made people sleep."
"It will become a kind of 'death experience drug,' in which the user will consciously experience the complete process of loss of consciousness, loss of perception, and gradual erosion of self-existence."
"The Death Experience Potion…" Morris repeated, his voice brimming with barely suppressed excitement, "This is exactly what I wanted!"
Snape's expression froze.
He slowly stood up and said grimly, "Mr. Black, you seem to have completely misunderstood me. This is not a fun adventure, nor is it one of your childish magical experiments..."
"Ah, I know."
Morris looked up, his face displaying a fervor Snape had never seen before.
"But don't you think... being able to experience death is a truly remarkable thing?"
"A person only has one chance to die in their life, but this magic potion can let you experience more."
"Unparalleled... How romantic!"
Snape was speechless for a moment.
How exactly does this student's thought process work?
It's such a waste of such a great talent for potions; it's as if he has some kind of mental problem.
But it doesn't matter anymore, let it be.
He had also personally tried this death-experience potion.
As it turned out, there were no particularly serious physiological effects; the only side effect was probably several days of insomnia.
That terrifying experience of death... he really didn't want to go through it a second time.
But perhaps, allowing students to experience the dangers of potions firsthand, thereby instilling in them a sense of awe for the subject, is also one of his responsibilities as a professor.
Seeing that Snape hadn't moved for a long time, Morris tentatively asked, "Um... Professor, may I take these ashes?"
"Yes," Snape said calmly. "A standard dose of the Water of Death requires only seven milligrams of bone ash. Remember to measure it with a balance, not with your self-righteous eyes."
"thank you."
Morris carefully tucked the small bottle into the innermost part of his pocket and placed it close to his body.
Snape didn't say anything more, he just waved his hand, indicating that he could leave.
Morris bowed slightly again, then turned and walked towards the door.
The professors at Hogwarts seem to be quite tolerant.
Upon reflection, he realized that his behavior was somewhat inappropriate.
Late at night, I suddenly went to disturb the professor's rest because of a guess.
They even took away the other person's ashes.
...
Back in his dorm, Morris carefully locked the door and took out the scales from a box in the corner.
The scales of the magical world are incredibly magical and remarkably accurate.
It is not difficult to accurately separate seven milligrams of bone ash.
When he added the ashes to the bottle of the water of life and death, the water slowly turned into a chaotic gray color.
"Canned food, don't bother me anymore," Morris instructed the undead cat that had appeared out of nowhere.
Meow~
The canned food nodded obediently.
Morris patted his silly cat's head and sat down in the center of the magic hall.
Then, he drank the bottle of laced "life-or-death water" in one gulp.
Almost instantly, he fell backward, his consciousness being dragged into boundless darkness.
...
warmth.
It felt like being wrapped in a soft, plush blanket.
After an unknown amount of time, Maurice opened his eyes.
A thin white mist surrounded him, enveloping him completely.
Where is this place...?
He propped himself up and looked around.
As dusk gradually dissipated, the surroundings remained the familiar scene of his dormitory, unchanged.
The difference is that the magic circle on the ground has disappeared.
Is this a failure?
"Canned food?" he called out instinctively, his voice echoing in the room.
There was no response.
Morris stood up, feeling a slight dizziness, somewhat like the aftereffects of Apparition.
After the dizziness subsided, he looked at the clock on the wall, wanting to check the time.
Strangely, the clock was stopped.
The hands stopped at 9:40:52.
Morris narrowed his eyes.
He couldn't believe that his clock would break down at this very moment.
Chapter 56 The Gap Between Life and Death
Maurice left the dormitory and entered the Ravenclaw common room.
Daylight had broken, and white light streamed through the glass windows, illuminating the entire room.
It's too quiet.
Morris frowned.
Even in the early morning, the Ravenclaw lounge is usually filled with a few early-rising, competitive students who sit there reading or chatting quietly.
But at this moment, the lounge was empty.
What puzzled him even more was that the hooting of owls that used to be heard from the outside world had also disappeared.
Are all the owls on strike today?
He walked to the window, and with a little effort, pushed it open.
The view outside the window made him catch his breath.
There was no familiar Hogwarts courtyard, no Black Lake, and no Forbidden Forest.
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